Beating in Time by M. J. Schiller

BEATING IN TIME, Last Chance Beach Romance, #15

Music took him away from her. Music brought him back. But are their hearts still beating in time?

Once upon a time, their hearts beat as one…

Drummer Levi Cannon knows that all the platinum records in the world won’t fill the Remi-sized hole in his heart.

I left Last Chance Beach and Remington Lawson behind when I took my shot at fame and fortune, but I had no idea what I was sacrificing. Now that a fundraiser has brought me home, I want more than anything to win her back. But it’s been eight years. There may be a bridge that connects the island to the mainland, but am I a fool to think that I can build something that will span the chasm of all those years?

Remi Boyd knows that her love for her brother’s best friend has never died.

But what kind of fool would I be to trust him again after he broke my heart? I was a child when he left. Now I’m a woman who’s been a wife and I’m also a mother to the most precious girl in the world. I can’t drag her through some torrid affair, and that is clearly all Levi can offer me.

Music took him away. Music brought him back. But is it too late to recapture what they once had? Or can Last Chance Beach work its magic for them?

Excerpt 

Remi

I parked in front of Wyatt’s—so he could pull in the driveway when he got back—and took the groceries for our weekly dinner inside to prepare. When I set the sack on the only counter with free space in his small galley kitchen, I didn’t see the saltshaker and knocked it onto the floor. I sighed.

What’s that they say about spilled salt?

Not remembering which shoulder the old adage advised using, I threw some over both to cover my bases. I was wound as tight as a tangled bobbin knowing that I’d be seeing Levi tomorrow. It was absolutely ridiculous to feel that way, but I just wanted to avoid any awkwardness. I hadn’t seen him since our one magical night together eight years ago. But I was probably worrying too much. Mr. Rock Star Super Star probably forgot that night a long time ago. I’m sure our moment was less than a blip on his radar after all the women he’d probably been with. Still, I couldn’t chase the anxiety away for some reason.

I spied the broom behind the small kitchen table and crossed to retrieve it to clean up my mess. But as I took hold of it, I heard a noise in the garage and froze. I knew Wyatt wasn’t home yet because he hadn’t even left when he called fifteen minutes earlier, having forgotten, somehow, that it was his day to pick up the kids. Last Chance Beach didn’t have a lot of crime, so I really wasn’t worried about an intruder, but it definitely could be an animal. Although I didn’t relish facing the thing, I knew if I waited for Wyatt, we could have two potential repercussions. One, my daughter, Misty, would want to keep it for a pet. Or two, she’d freak because she’d think we were hurting or scaring the pest by chasing it outside. Or, now that I thought of it, there was definitely the third possibility, which would be her doing both.

Okay. You can do this. Just reach in and open the garage, and he’ll run out. Easy peasy.

I tightened my grip on the broom, wielding it as a weapon, and slowly opened the door. I’m not sure why, as the thing was likely not poised to jump on me the minute he spotted me, but I didn’t want to take any chances. I went through a list of animals it could be, because it sounded large, and decided a possum was my worst-case scenario. Those prehistoric beasts were ugly and repulsed me. As the door opened and my view became wider, I saw him standing in front of his old drum set. He was looking in the opposite direction, but I knew that body and shoulder-length, dark, curly hair. I recognized the way the dusky blue of his T-shirt stretched across his broad back and hinted at his musculature. His jeans accentuated the man’s fabulous ass. He hadn’t changed one iota. My heart leaped. Hearing me, I suppose, he turned.

His smile chased the cobwebs from the corners of the room. “Remi.” Then the smile faded and his brow furrowed. “Are you going to bash my head in?”

“What?” Then, realizing I still held the broom aloft, I brought it down and hid it behind me. What for? He’d already seen me brandishing it. “Oh, sorry. I heard a noise and…” My throat was dry as I stared into his face, awash in a thousand memories of him. Most of them in this garage, but some elsewhere…at our kitchen table, at the beach, on one of the worst nights in my life, and on one of the best. I cleared my throat. “I thought you were an animal.”

He gave me that easy grin of his that could make me do anything. “Well, I can be, if you want.”

“What? No. I mean…I thought maybe a possum got in here or an armadillo…or something.”

He walked toward me, and I fought not to retreat from him. “I knew what you meant, Remi.” He stopped a few feet away. “It’s…really good to see you.”

Buy links:

Books2Read: https://books2read.com/BeatingInTime

Amazon: https://mybook.to/BeatingInTime

https://www.amazon.com/BEATING-TIME-Chance-Beach-Romance-ebook/dp/B0BRH7KQP2?ref_=ast_sto_dp

Nook book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/beating-in-time-m-j-schiller/1142904265?ean=2940186568353

Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/beating-in-time

iTunes: https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6445329638

Bio 

M.J. Schiller is a retired lunch lady/romance-romantic suspense writer. She enjoys writing novels whose characters include rock stars, desert princes, teachers, futuristic Knights, construction workers, cops, and a wide variety of others. In her mind everybody has a romance. She is the mother of a twenty-seven-year-old and three twenty-five-year-olds. That's right, triplets! So having recently taught four children to drive, she likes to escape from life on occasion by pretending to be a rock star at karaoke. However…you won’t be seeing her name on any record labels soon.

Website: https://mjschillerauthor.blogspot.com/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/m-j-schiller

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/MJ-Schiller-Romance-Author/286382241460365

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mjschiller/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mjschiller

Tumblr: http://mjschilz.tumblr.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/mjschiller

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6479377.M_J_Schiller

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/M-J-Schiller/e/B009JOQFQQ

TEN MINUTES IN THE SIN BIN by M. J. Schiller

Scott McCord always got what he wanted. The trouble is, he doesn’t know what that is this time.

Scottie McCord is an NHL forward who doesn’t do a lot of looking back. But when Elise Scofield moves to the same West Coast city he plays for, he can’t help but reminisce.

I’m psyched Elise will be close by. She’s a lot of fun, and I need to get the 411 on her breakup with Hunter. I warned him when they first started dating that I would be none too happy with him if he hurt Elise. Not that I have a thing for her. Sure, that kiss when we were kids was the hottest moment of my life, but that’s just because it was a first. She’s like a sister to me now.

#

Elise Scofield is making a fresh start. A move to sunny California may be just what she needs, especially with Scott there.

Scottie and I have always been close, “two straws in a soda” is my mom’s weird way of putting it. We’ve gotten over that awkwardness of having kissed a long time ago, and fallen into an easy brother-and-sister-type of relationship. He’s the best. And who knows? He might even introduce me to an eligible hockey player or two.

But when Scott’s teammate says he’d like to spend TEN MINUTES IN THE SIN BIN with Elise, Scott becomes hot enough to melt the ice that he plays on. Then when Scott finds out his opposite winger is only trying to win a bet by bedding Elise, he wants to check his teammate into oblivion. But why are his feelings always so amped up around Elise?

One thing’s for certain; he’s determined to keep Sergei from hurting Elise. And when he’s determined, he gets what he wants. 

The only problem is...this time around he’s not sure what it is he wants.  

Excerpt:

I put the puck on the ice between us and hoped to catch her gaze, but she was focused. Her lips were in motion; she was strategizing. I chortled. “You’re so cute when you think you have a chance of winning.”

“Shut up and play.”

I raised my brows. Ooh, touchy.

We tapped ice, then stick, ice, then stick, ice, then stick, and then with lightning speed she got the puck. In her excitement, though, she let the puck get away from her. Rookie mistake. She had to go deep into the corner to regain control, which gave me the opportunity to get in position in front of the net. Our eyes met. She knew it was over. If she took a shot, I wouldn’t let it go in, and I’d take it to the other end before she’d finished her follow-through. She skated warily to the blue line, giving herself time to think, then poured it on, weaving across the ice, going backhand to forehand and back, honed in on me, hoping I’d commit one way or another. I opened my legs to give her a glimpse of the five-hole and she bought it, taking her shot. I didn’t have goalie’s pillows to seal it off, but I still managed to block it. Elise lost an edge and went sliding into the boards with a loud thud. She moaned, lying face down on the ice.

“Elise!” Forgetting everything else I sprinted to her side. “Are you okay?”

“Oh.” She lifted her head, grimacing. “What happened?” she said shakily. She got on all fours.

I tried to assess the level of damage. “Where does it hurt?”

“Umm…” She lunged to her right, hooking the puck with the blade of her stick and swung it into the net. “Yes!”

It took me a second to realize I’d been had. “Wait. That didn’t count.”

“I didn’t hear any whistle, so the play was not dead. I won.” She rolled onto her butt and extended her arm for me to help her up.

I jerked her to her feet and again her closeness made my throat tighten. “I should have dumped you on your butt.”

She removed her bucket, shaking free all of that gorgeous hair and grinning at me. “Yes. You should have.” She tapped my lips with her finger. “But you didn’t.”

I really, really wanted to kiss her. Like, knock her onto the ice and rip off her pads. And rip off my pads. And touch her smooth skin. And feel her lips under mine. And—

“Are you coming?”

She had glided about halfway across the ice and had pivoted, looking at me with a little cocky lift of her chin. I let out a scream that was partially a deep-throated yowl, partially an unidentifiable shout and rushed her. She shrieked and jumped then tried to race away from me, but I caught her at the boards where she had been hindered by opening the gate, trapping her in my arms, my mouth at her ear.

“You, my dear, are a cheat.”

Books2Read: https://books2read.com/TenMinutesInTheSinBin

Amazon:   https://mybook.to/TenMinutesInTheSinBin

https://www.amazon.com/TEN-MINUTES-DEVILISH-DESIRES-Book-ebook/dp/B0B86V54JC/

Nook book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/ten-minutes-in-the-sin-bin-m-j-schiller/1141939433

Kobo:  https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/ten-minutes-in-the-sin-bin

iTunes:  https://books.apple.com/us/book/id6443254219

~*~

M.J. Schiller is a lunch lady/romance-romantic suspense writer. She enjoys writing novels whose characters include rock stars, desert princes, teachers, futuristic Knights, construction workers, cops, and a wide variety of others. In her mind everybody has a romance. She is the mother of a twenty-seven-year-old and three twenty-five-year-olds. That's right, triplets! So having recently taught four children to drive, she likes to escape from life on occasion by pretending to be a rock star at karaoke. However…you won’t be seeing her name on any record labels soon. 

Website: https://mjschillerauthor.blogspot.com/

BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/m-j-schiller

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/MJ-Schiller-Romance-Author/286382241460365?ref=hl

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/mjschiller/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mjschiller

Tumblr: http://mjschilz.tumblr.com/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/mjschiller

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6479377.M_J_Schiller

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/M-J-Schiller/e/B009JOQFQQ